Dawn Had Yet to Arrive

"Tina—Masha—open the door!" A woman nearing forty pounded frantically on her own front door and screamed hysterically. "Tina—Masha—open the door! There's no time left!"

Saboxijiao had just rushed over from Meilanergo Church in the southern part of the Lower City. She pounded so fiercely on her own door because she wanted to tell her daughters some wonderful news. Her golden hair fluttered in the wind, while two trails of warm tears ran down her lightly wrinkled face.

"Tina—Masha—open the door! Mommy is begging you! Leave with Mommy—if you come with me, we can be saved—" Splinters from the wooden door cut Saboxijiao's arms, but she paid them no mind, letting the blood stain her clothes.

"Tina—Masha—this isn't the time to be stubborn! Open the door! The monsters are about to invade Canfor! Open the door! Mommy is begging you..." Saboxijiao cried again.

As night fell beyond the city, the Holy Wall guarded by the three great angels began to tremble.

"Drip... drip..." Something fell from above...

A sour, nauseating stench wafted over from the distant city wall. The zombies clinging to the Holy Wall like insect eggs fell away like bugs.

"Tina—Masha—open the door already! This isn't the time to be stubborn—come with Mommy to the church! There are miracles there, and Mr. Latopil—he can protect us! Mommy is begging you, don't joke around with your lives!" Saboxijiao rammed her frail body against her front door. "Hurry—hurry up and open it! Those monsters are about to get in!"

"Drip... drip..." Rotten flesh fell slowly from the undead as they moved. Skeletons and zombies marched forward without awareness.

"May the Supreme God bless us—" The people under the church's protection sang their newly composed hymn.

"Tiadam—he has the broadest shoulders—" the priest sang.

"He has the most generous heart—he is the Holy Father's incarnation in the mortal world. His towering form can slaughter countless monsters; not even the most terrifying Demon King can halt his steps—he is light—he is holiness—he is the incarnation of the Supreme God's mercy—"

The believers knelt on the ground and echoed, "He is the bravest hero—the noblest champion. He possesses the greatest divine power—he is the Holy Son's father—the Holy Mother's husband—"

"Tina—Masha—where are you!?" After forcing open the front door, Saboxijiao staggered toward the inner rooms. Her husband had been bedridden for years after contracting Rosa Kevin's Curse, and the entire house reeked like rotten mud.

"Tina—Masha—where are you!?" Saboxijiao searched the entire first floor without finding any sign of Tina or Masha. Then she remembered that, long ago, when she played hide-and-seek with Tina and Masha at home, the two girls often hid in the wardrobes, so...

Saboxijiao opened every cabinet on the first floor, but there was nothing inside them. Her husband often joked that their home was so poor that even spiders refused to spin webs there.

"Tina—Masha—where are you!? Come with Mommy—Mommy is begging you—" Saboxijiao did not find her daughters downstairs, so she headed toward the source of the sour stench in her home—her husband Andrei's room.

She had married Andrei twenty years ago. Back then, Andrei had been a twenty-year-old adventurer, while Saboxijiao had been a seventeen-year-old restaurant waitress. They had first met in a green forest, when Andrei had still been a handsome, valiant young man.

"Tina—Masha—where are you!?" Saboxijiao shouted. Yellow-green miasma drifted out from Andrei's room, its stench nauseating and numbing. Saboxijiao thought this was probably the only inheritance Andrei would leave behind after his death...

Andrei had been a brave and kind warrior then. He hunted monsters with his companions for rewards, then drank and ate meat at the restaurant where Saboxijiao worked. From the moment she met Andrei, Saboxijiao often imagined herself as a princess imprisoned by monsters, saved by a warrior like Andrei, then bearing his children and living happily ever after with him. And reality had indeed unfolded that way...

The first door Saboxijiao kicked open was Andrei's. This once heroic young man now lay limp on his sickbed, his once resolute and sturdy body rotted and stinking.

Suppressing her nausea, Saboxijiao searched beneath Andrei's bed and through his wardrobe. There was no sign of Masha or Tina there either...

Within two years of marrying Andrei, Saboxijiao quickly had a child. It was a boy, and Andrei liked him very much, often teaching him swordsmanship and how to parry.

Later, as Rosa Kevin gradually awakened, there were more and more monsters in the forest. Naturally, Saboxijiao and Andrei's life grew more prosperous as well. The following ten years were Saboxijiao's happiest days. She gave birth to Tina and Glaner in succession, and when Rosa Kevin awakened, Saboxijiao gave birth to Masha.

"Tina—Masha—where are you!? Answer Mommy—" Saboxijiao kicked open her sons' room.

Not long after Masha was born, Andrei followed the hero Ocast on the path to slay the evil god Rosa Kevin. Andrei had undoubtedly been fortunate during the campaign against Rosa Kevin. Ocast left him behind in Labi Village to care for villagers cursed by the Spider Demon Risala, allowing him to... escape disaster.

"Tina—Masha—where are you!?" Saboxijiao collapsed to her knees on the floor. Frustration, grief, and despair wrapped around her heart. This frail woman pried open Tina and Masha's bedroom door, only to find it empty too. She felt as though someone had hollowed her out...

At the moment Rosa Kevin was slain, Andrei had also unfortunately contracted Rosa Kevin's Curse. Yet even now, he was still fortunate. He had children, a wife, and a home in the south of Canfor.

The southern district of Canfor was far from Elrina Forest and had not suffered much from the curse, but holy water was exceedingly expensive. Unless one was a believer of the Ouston Church, no amount of money could buy it.

Saboxijiao left her house like a walking corpse. The entire street was empty; for safety, the people of the Lower City had all gone into hiding...

Financial pressure soon crushed Saboxijiao's family. She sent her eldest son to another city to become an adventurer, while her two daughters stayed by Andrei's side to care for him.

No matter how difficult life became, Saboxijiao had never considered giving up. She knelt in the dilapidated Meilanergo Church and wept, while the songs drifting from within the church soothed her heart.

"Oh, lost lambs~" The master of the church—Mr. Latopil—held the hands of two young girls as he slowly descended the stairs.

"Dear Saboxijiao, where are your daughters?" The nearly sixty-year-old man spoke with a smile. Holy light drifted through his blue-brown eyes, while grease covered his fair but aged face.

The noble priest pressed his belly forward as he helped Saboxijiao to her feet.

"You should know—being able to enter the church and become a nun is an immense honor—" Mr. Latopil cried loudly. "If your husband knew, he surely would... be happy too..."

"My husband is already dead... and my daughters are missing..." Saboxijiao answered emotionlessly.

"Oh~ How unfortunate. Your daughters once had the chance to become nuns in our church—" Mr. Latopil gently stroked Saboxijiao's waist and back. His holy words were like gems that healed the heart, and this honest elder led Saboxijiao into the church.

"I... I really..." Saboxijiao wept bitterly in Mr. Latopil's embrace. "I really... truly... did it for their own good... Why can't they understand? I'm their mother—would I ever hurt them?"

"Dear lady, please do not weep~" Mr. Latopil said. "From today onward, you are their sister..."

Hundreds of residents who had come seeking refuge knelt in the ruined church. They sang hymns, believing that the power carried by those songs would protect them from the monsters outside the city.

"O hero Tiadam—" Mr. Latopil stood upon the pulpit and sang. "You are the incarnation of the Supreme God—you are stronger than Ocast, a hero among heroes, king of all kings—you can slay every evil in this world—"

"Ah—O hero Tiadam—you are the incarnation of the Supreme God—you are stronger than Ocast, a hero among heroes, king of all kings—you can slay every evil in this world—" Saboxijiao sang along with the others.

"Big Sister—Big Sister—where are you taking me?" The young Masha held her sister Tina's hand and asked innocently. "Aren't we waiting for Mommy?"

"We're not... waiting..." Tina said gently. "Mommy has to take care of Daddy... so she can't come with us..."

"But... where are we going now?" Masha asked.

"I... don't know either..." Tina clenched her hand. "Maybe going outside the city... would... work..."

A streak of golden lightning tore across the pitch-black night sky. Several seconds later, the sound of the Holy Wall shattering spread throughout Canfor.

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